Karelian Wedding in the Land of the Kalevala
About Karelian Wedding in the Land of the Kalevala
A reconstructed Karelian wedding, filmed with people from Suojärvi and Porajärvi, shows the clothes, songs, and the order of the rites. It is not a story with a bride and groom played by actors from Helsinki. Uuno Taavi Sirelius planned the ceremonies. A. O. Väisänen directed. The Finnish title is Häiden vietto Karjalan runomailla.
Cast & crew
More about Karelian Wedding in the Land of the Kalevala
The Kalevala Society produced it. Sirelius wrote the plan and led the summer 1920 expedition. J. W. Mattila was the cameraman. Väinö Salminen went as the folklore specialist. Väisänen also handled the money and directed. Armas Launis adapted music from his operas Seven Brothers and Kullervo. Finnish Wikipedia times it at 66 minutes and dates the premiere 28 February 1921. An English-titled export copy was called Wedding in Poetic Karjala. The same page calls the audience result middling.
Themes
Background
Border Karelia was still the place the Kalevala Society treated as the living source of the wedding customs it wanted recorded.
Making
Sirelius, Mattila, Salminen, and Väisänen went to Suojärvi in the summer of 1920 and had the village play a wedding that the society wanted on film.
Audiences
Finnish Wikipedia describes the box-office result as middling.
Look
J. W. Mattila photographed the reconstructed rites at Suojärvi.
Music
Armas Launis arranged music from his operas Seven Brothers and Kullervo for the film.
Notes
- The people on screen are local residents, not a professional company.
- Catalog names include Lyyli Home, Olga Trofimova, Ivan Bombin, Benjam Trofimov, Vaslei Purkunen, and Matjoi Plattonen.
- The shoot was a staged wedding, recorded as ethnography.
- An Internet Archive copy uses the English title.
Scenes
- The village stages the wedding order, from clothing to the songs.
- Launis’s opera music is fitted to the rites.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-karelian-wedding-in-the-land-of-the-kalevala)